On Wednesday 11 May 2022 I responded to Member for Traeger's motion "on Trans Women in Sport" by affirming my support for trans people.
Mr Katter: I move—
That this House supports women’s rights by agreeing that:
- allowing biological men to play in female sport will erode the integrity of female sport;
- anyone who supports biological men playing in female sport, irrespective of age group, level or code, is complicit in eroding the integrity of female sport and therefore women’s rights;
- based on their insurmountable physical advantages, biological males participating in female sport pose an unfair competitive advantage against and/or safety risk towards female athletes.
Mr Berkman: I do not need my five minutes. It is very rare for us on the crossbench to have an opportunity to contribute on a private member’s motion, so I will just take the opportunity to put on the record how repugnant I find this motion and I want to speak very briefly in support of all of those trans people in my life—all my friends and loved ones—for whom this motion is a real affront. It is completely unnecessary to drag this kind of disgusting conservative dog-whistling politics in here, and I think it is telling that we are hearing not a single word from the opposition to speak against it. We still have the pm’s hand-picked candidate down in Warringah who is being let off the chain to carry on with all kinds of disgusting transphobic rhetoric. We should not stand for it. We cannot stand for transphobia in this place or anywhere in society. I will leave it at that so that hopefully we can close off this debate and put the issue to bed.